Impersonation: Not Just A Party Trick
by maximumride8899
Summary: Max is a well known thief in New York. She's on the run after a successful heist and soon leaves New York and suddenly finds herself in Virginia. There she meets Maya, a girl who makes her an offer she can't deny; pretend to be her while she goes away from Virginia for a few days. But then days turn to months, and Max realizes that you can't hide from your past forever. FAX
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! To new readers, I say hey! Welcome to my story, I hope you enjoy it! For those of you who have read my other stories, I say welcome back, and thanks for reading yet another one of my stories! Anyways, I hope you like the story, and I'll try to update it a lot. After you read it, please review it! Just type a few words and hit review, and you're done! **

**Well, without further waiting, here's the story! **

**_Prologue _**

I looked at the little Rubix cube in my hand; I had long since figured out the secret to the little colored toys. Although this one was different than the regular, simple ones I was used to seeing; this was an expensive one, with intricate swirls and designs scattered and scrambled together on all sides. Their colors merged together on the edges, making it nearly impossible to distinguish a single square. I smiled to myself; I always love a challenge.

My fingers moved swiftly over the cube, twisting and turning it faster than the eye could see. The clicks of the sides coming together rang out through the empty room, almost creating the effect of a ticking clock.

With a final _click_, the blue row of swirls fell into place with the blue side, completing the cube. Again I smiled to myself, looking at the perfectly drawn sides; sometimes I wonder how something so complicated and seemingly impossible can become so perfect in the end.

I set the finished cube down on the desk in front of me and then turned my chair to face the rest of the room. Grey colored all four of the walls, with hot-pink circled designs painted vertically into columns. The bed was also hot-pink, with a grey shag rug on the wood floor beside the bed. The was black with little intricate hot-pink designs on it, with a hot-pink lamp on the back edge.

_Thump Thump Thump Thump_

I quickly stood up and walked over to a window on the other side of the room, in case I needed to make a quick getaway.

When the footsteps stopped outside of the door, I pulled the black curtains back and gripped the bottom of the window; muscles poised to rip it open at any second.

The door slowly opened, revealing a girl with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, wearing an Abercrombie shirt and short jean shorts, and carrying two glasses of some kind of pink drink. My hand released the window and let the curtains fall back into place, but I didn't leave my spot beside it.

She quickly noticed me standing by the window and walked over, handing me one of the two drinks. I hesitantly took it, eyeing the liquid inside. Noticing my look, the girl raised her (probably waxed) eyebrows.

"It's just pink lemonade; it's not going to kill you." She took a dainty sip of her drink and sat down on the edge of her bed, her body turned towards me. I finally took a small sip of it; a sour-sweet taste filled my mouth and, ignoring the striped straw in the drink, I took a huge gulp of it, savoring the taste.

The girl bit her lip as I wiped the drink off my mouth with the back of my hand and then wiped it on my shorts. I ignored the look and set my glass on the window sill before crossing my arms over my chest and staring at her.

"So, why'd you want to see me?" I asked her, leaning back against the wall. The girl smiled, took another small sip from her drink, and set it on the side table beside the bed.

"Well, I have a proposition for you." My eyebrows rose. "Which would be?" She bit her lip again, trying to figure out what to say.

"Well, basically, I need a break from this place; I want to go on vacation, but my parents will never let me go alone; they'll either not let me go, or they'll go with me, which I DO NOT want. That's where you come in." I felt my eyebrows scrunch together and I looked at her weird.

"You just pretend to be me while I take a much needed vacation." I paused for a second before answering.

"So you want me to pretend to be you because you want to go on vacation?" She shrugged.

"It's more complicated than that; if I stay here, I'll probably go insane! My boyfriend's driving me crazy, my sister will not stop bugging me 24/7, and just a bunch of other crap. I NEED to get away." I narrowed my eyes at her. So she was just a spoiled little brat who wanted to run away! God, some people are unbelievable!

"So will you do it?"

I thought it over for a second. "And what would happen if I said no?" Her features suddenly became slightly hard, giving her face a more menacing look. It was probably meant to scare me, but I wasn't fazed.

"Max," My eyes darted down to her, my heart beating quicker in my chest; there's no way she could possibly know who I am!

As if reading my thoughts, she said "Yea, I know who you are. I know that you're in trouble in New York, and I know that you're on the run. I know you need to hide, and here's the perfect opportunity!" She smiled again and lifted her hands into the air, gesturing to the room.

"Just be me, and whoever you're running from won't ever know it's you." I thought over it for a moment. It was a perfect plan, I have to admit; I could hide out here, at least until all the crap in New York settles down. "But I don't even know anything about you, or your life; I don't even know your name!" She smiled.

"I can tell you all that! And my name's Maya, by the way." She said, hope written on her face. I sighed; this is probably the only way I'll ever be able to hide for a while. If only for a few days, I'll probably have to take it.

"Ok; I'll be you."

"Yay!" She stood up and hugged my neck, jumping up and down and yelling.

Oh god, what have I just gotten myself into?

.

.

.

I'm probably getting a little ahead of myself; let me go back to the beginning, to what made me have to except Maya's offer. 2 months ago, to be exact.

**So? What do you guys think? I reeeaally hope you liked it! Please review and give me your feedback!** **I promise other chapters will be longer than this one; this one was just short because it was a prologue. So review and come back when I update it again!**

**Bye!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've just been kinda busy. Hope you enjoy, and please review!**

**Chapter 2**

"Time!" I yelled into the little microphone headset currently attached to my ear.

"1 minute." Was Zach's reply.

_Shit! I've only release 1 of the tumblers!_

I'm an expert in cracking safes, but this one was giving me lots of trouble. These people have one that I've never seen before; they probably had it specially made.

"Buy me some more time." I yelled back, becoming frustrated with the safe.

"Cassie can't hack the alarm anymore; you'll just have to hurry." He said, sounding a tad bit worried.

_I'm going to have to have a talk with Zach later; no one EVER tells me to hurry_

I turned my full attention to the combo lock, trying to concentrate on the little _ticks_ as I quickly turned the steel circle.

_Ok, moment of truth_

_12 _I turned the lock until the number appeared.

_25_ I made a full circle until I rounded on the number.

_0_ I took a deep breath and stopped on 0.

"Zach, either it opens now, or we're screwed."

"Technically you're screwed, since you'll be the one they'll find trying to crack into the safe." Came his reply. I scowled.

"Shut up!" The microphone crackled as I heard him laugh on the other end.

"Laugh all you want, but if I go down, you're coming with me." This time he stayed silent and I smiled to myself.

I braced my hands on the steel turner and heaved it to the side, almost sighing in relief as it turned all the way around.

_Fist pump in the air moment!_

"I'm in."

"Ok you have 5 minutes to get the gold and get out of there, so try to hurry."

_Again with the hurry!_

I quickly pulled my backpack off my back and began stuffing it with the contents of the safe; wads and wads of hundred dollar bills.

After emptying the safe of all the money (over $500,000 in cash) I zipped the bag back up and hoisted it onto my back, slumping a little bit in surprise at the weight.

"Dam it's heavy!" I said to myself.

"It's paper Max." I rolled my eyes.

"It's heavy paper!" I whined into the headset.

"Ok, what's my route out of here?" I asked while regaining my balance.

"Head to your left down the hall; stop at the 3rd door on you right." He said briskly. I sprinted down the hall and counted the doors until I came to the 3rd one.

"I'm there." I quickly said.

"Ok go inside and then look up at the ceiling." He replied.

_Look up? Um, ok._

I followed his instructions and almost started laughing when I saw what was on the ceiling.

"You're kidding me, right? How am I supposed to get up there?" I asked, amused and annoyed at the same time.

Above me was probably the smallest fucking ceiling-window-thing ever, only about 6 in. by 6in. If that wasn't hard enough already there was still the fact that it was on the fucking ceiling!

"You'll figure it out, but do it quickly; you only have 5 minutes."

_Duly noted_

I scanned the room, which looked to be a living room, for something that could give me the height to get to the ceiling. My gaze landed on a small couch in the corner of the room.

_Perfect_

I ran over and pulled the couch to the center of the room and threw all the pillows elsewhere. I pushed the couch into a vertical (tall) position so that it reached towards the ceiling. I started climbing on it till I reached the top.

_Please don't fall, please don't fall_

I reached towards the window, searching for the lock on it so I could open it.

_Lock, lock, come on where's the stupid lock!?_

After about a minute of searching I sighed in defeat.

_Looks like I'll have to break it_

I position my elbow on the center of the window and in one quick movement pulled it back and smacked it against the glass. A small circle of spider web cracks formed.

_SMACK_

More cracks.

_SMACK_

A large portion of the window was now covered in cracks.

_One more…_

_SMACK_

Glass showered down on my head as the window shattered, leaving a boarder of jagged glass in the rectangle space. Surprisingly no alarm sounded, indicating that these people didn't think someone would break in through it.

_I don't blame them; I wouldn't be doing this if I had a choice _

I gripped the edges of it, intending to pull myself through, but instead hissed in pain as I tore my hands back down. I had momentarily forgotten about the broken glass still hanging onto the window.

_This is going to hurt like hell_

I took a deep breath and latched onto the window again, hissing in pain but still pulling myself up through it. I heard fabric tear as I pulled my torso through the not-so-big window.I fought back the tears and pulled myself out of the window and collapsed onto the roof.

I mentally screamed as I sat up and examined my torso. I flinched at the sight at the long tear marks in my black skin-tight shirt, revealing bloody skin beneath. It almost looked like a cat scratched me.

_A cat on steroids_

I glanced at my hands sighing to see deep cuts all along my palms.

_Looks like I won't be writing anytime soon_

"Max? Are you out?" I mentally glared.

"Yea, after the glass cut the shit out of me! Next time, try to make my exit not involving windows on the fucking ceiling!" I yelled into the microphone.

"Oh ouch; anyways, in order to get down, you're going to have to jump to the building next to you and-"

"Jump buildings?! Are you kidding?!" I angrily interrupted. He waited a second before answering.

"As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted, jump buildings; the one next to you is an apartment building, so you'll be able to walk down the balcony stairs." He said, sounding annoyed at first. I groaned, but stood up and made my way to the edge of the building.

"If I die like a pancake, I'm blaming you." I stated, and then closed my eyes, took a running start, and jumped.

I was momentarily airborne, flying through the air; despite the pain in my side I smiled to myself.

And just like that I hit the ground.

I tucked and rolled on the other roof, earning myself a few scrapes on my cheeks. Ignoring the pain again I jumped up and ran towards the balcony, climbing down the stairs as fast as I could.

Once on the ground I ran around the block, heading towards the black SUV parked on the side of the busy road.

_C'mon c'mon just a few more feet_

I closed in on the car, smiling in relief as the side doors opened, allowing me to jump inside. They slammed behind me as I collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Mason go!" Zach yelled to Mason, who was sitting in the driver's seat. Instantly the car lurched, moving forward down the road.

"Omigod! Max, are you ok?" Cassidy yelled/asked. She scooted over to me and examined my torso and hands.

"Cassie I'm fine." I muttered, just wanting to go to sleep. She ignored my comment.

"We don't have any bandages, but I may be able to wrap you up with a T-shirt." She turned to Zach.

"Zach, give me your shirt." She held out her hand to Zach, who just stared at it.

"What why?" He asked, looking at her weirdly.

"Zach, give me. Your shirt." She said, her voice deadly. Zach quickly pulled off his black shirt and tossed it to Cassie. He blushed a little and turned his attention back to the computer in front of him.

Cassie started peeling off my shirt, to which I gritted my teeth in pain.

"Zach don't you dare look back here or I'll murder you and feed you to the birds." I warned, even though I was still wearing a sports bra underneath.

"No worries Maxi." He said; I glared at the back of his head.

"Don't call me Maxi." I said coldly, but he ignored it. I took the time to look back down at my stomach, which was a mass of blood and skin.

"Oh, that's not pretty." I mumbled as Cassie began wrapping Zach's T-shirt around it. I gritted my teeth, but tried to ignore the pain.

"Ok, now to your hands." Cassie said; she started ripping my T-shirt into strips, and then wrapped them around my hands. When she was finished she backed up to look at her work

"There's not much I can do about the scrapes, but they should heal up quickly, knowing you." She scanned my body again. "God Max, what'd you do? Roll around in a pile of glass?" She asked.

"Zach over there had me go through a window on the ceiling of the building." I replied, glaring at Zach. He turned around to look at us.

"It was the only way out; it was either that or get caught." I rolled my eyes. He could've found another way.

_That reminds me…_

"Zach, remember the last heist? When I reminded you, yet again, not to ever tell me to hurry?" I said,

"Uh, yea?" He said, not seeing where this was going.

"And what did you tell me to do 3 times today?"

"I only told you to hurry because you needed to."

"I don't need you to tell me to hurry."

"I was just making sure you got out in time."

"I always get out in time." Suddenly Cassie stepped between us.

"How about you both shut up so I can get some peace?"

"Tell him not to tell me to hurry."

"Tell her that I can say what I want as long as she's still in the house." We both looked to Cassie, who's usually the mediator between us.

"Why don't you both just shut up so I can drive!" Mason yelled from the front of the car. Me and Zach rolled our eyes and turned away from each other.

It stayed sorta quiet the rest of the way to the apartment; when we got there u sluggishly got out, shivering in the cold breeze that had picked up. God I probably look like a road warrior or something.

Ok, imagine this; 4 teenagers getting out of a big black SUV, one holding a bulging book bag, and one wearing just a sports bra and a T-shirt over her upper body, all with headsets attached to their ears.

Yea, suspicious as crap. Luckily this is New York, so no one noticed us.

Except one person.

I was the last out of the van, and I knew it would take a little bit for me to get to our upstairs apartment, so I told everyone else to go ahead, leaving me outside. I slowly walked to the door flinching in pain with each step. I was about to reach for the door when I was jerked to the side and shoved into the brick wall beside it.

"Ride." I glared at the guy standing in front of me.

"Maxwell; what do you want?" Maxwell was part of a few gangs in downtown; we don't really know each other, but I knew about him.

"I want what you just stole from the Richardson estate." I swear I think my eye started twitching.

"You want what we stole? Are you kidding?! Did you just risk your life for it? No! You're not even coming near it." I said, ice coating my words.

He just stared at me for a few seconds. In the blink of an eye he had released one of my shoulders and was pressing his thumb into my abdomen. I hissed in pain and scrambled to back up, but, my back was against a brick wall.

_Lovely_

Finally he pulled his thumb back, leaving me breathing ragged breaths.

"Where is it?" He asked, his words as icy as mine.

"You'll never find it." I said, which earned an icy glare from him.

"If you won't tell me, I guess I'll just have to ask one of your friends." He said with a smirk.

Something inside me just snapped.

I lunged at him, knocking him off balance and onto the ground. I punched him in the jaw and kneed him in the stomach, keeping him from getting up.

"Don't you EVER come near them; if you do I'll hunt you down and I'll do something so bad to you that they'll be cleaning up all the blood for DAYS. Now get out of my sight!" I yelled at him, getting off and kicking him in the opposite direction. He scrambled up and ran back down the street.

_Good riddance_

When I got inside I told everyone what happened, to which no one really worried; Maxwell never does carry out his threats.

But this time turned out to be different.

About a week later Cassie got jumped by about 10 guys, asking where the money was. She didn't tell them and got away, but not before getting a black eye and a split lip. She told everyone not to worry, but it set me a little on edge. I told everyone to only go out of the apartment in pairs.

But we still got jumped.

Zach and Mason got jumped by like 20 guys one night while going to the store about a week after that. They barely made it out, both coming back with bruises and blood everywhere.

That's when I made the decision.

I told everyone that we had to leave, or at least lay low for a while. We agreed to leave New York for a little bit, or at least until everything dies down. We'd have to go separate ways, for they might find us if we all went to the same place.

That's how I found myself standing with the 3 of them in the middle of central park, my back pack full f my belongings. We all hugged and then just kinda stood and stared at each other. Finally Mason turned on his heel and started walking away. Cassie waited till his blonde hair turned into a black blob to leave, going in the opposite direction. Then it was just me and Zach.

"I guess this is it for a little while Maxi." He smiled at me, trying to lighten the mood. I gave small smile to him, not having the heart to tell him not to call me Maxi.

"Bye Zach." I hugged him again, and then watched sadly as he turned and left, leaving me alone in the middle of the park.

I took a deep breath and then set off in the direction that no one else had gone, towards a bus stop on the side of the road.

I road the bus as far as I could, to a big station in New Jersey; from there I hitched a ride with some farmer all the way until some farm on the boarder of Virginia. I basically just walked from there; until the day I saw the girl who looked just like me in a small town in the mountains. I decided to stay there a little bit, and maybe find out who she was. But I slipped up and she saw me; she ran up to me about a day later, telling me to come to her house wither her.

And that's how I found myself in a foreign room in a foreign house, hugging a happy girl I didn't even know after having agreed to be her while she went on vacation.

_Well that escalated quickly_

**Well, there it was! Chapter 2! I'll probably make most chapters this length from now on, as long as I get reviews. So just enter a simply review below!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi! So, this is kinda filler chapter! I promise that the next chapters will be better, it's just I'm not good at right these introductory chapters. Please review!**

**Chapter 3**

"Ok, this is going to sting for a few seconds, so be ready." Maya said. My hand gripped the bed covers I was lying on as Maya grabbed the little cloth attached to my forehead.

"1, 2, 3!" She ripped it off, giving me the most burning sensation I have ever felt in my entire life.

I opened my mouth and then closed it again, trying to breathe through the burning that was currently spreading across my head. Maya stared at me and gave me a weird look.

"Are you ok?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Not really." I managed to say calmly, even though I was on the brink of screaming.

"Are you going to start cussing?" She asked. I nodded my head while biting my lip.

"Ok, well my mom's downstairs, so I'm just going to put this pillow over your face, and then you can say whatever you want." She said calmly, grabbing a pillow from the end of the bed and putting it over my face.

"Ok you're good." Was her muffled reply.

_If you can't handle much cussing, don't read this next part children._

"Oh shit! God dam it! Fuck fuck fuck! Holy shit! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" I screamed into the pillow. I could feel Maya struggling to keep the pillow in place, trying and failing to muffle my screams.

After about 2 more minutes I calmed down and started breathing again.

Maya slowly pulled the pillow off my face.

"Better?" I nodded. She smiled and put the pillow back down

"Ok good, because now we have to work on the other eyebrow."

_Oh fuck_

*5 cuss filled minutes later*

"Ok I'm done! See, was it THAT bad?" Maya asked, smiling as I looked at my new eyebrows in a mirror she had on her wall. I have to admit, they don't look half bad. They were a lot thinner and smaller, but not small enough to look weird.

"It was pretty bad." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh whatEVER; now I just have to work on your hair and clothes and you'll be good to go!"

_What's wrong with my hair?_

_Sure, I had cut it myself with a pair of scissors we had laying around the apartment, but I think I did a pretty good job._

I held up a piece and looked at it; it was uneven, but that shouldn't matter.

"Ok just sit right here and I'll be right back." Maya pointed to a grey stool that she had pulled to the center of the room. I sat down as she walked out of the room.

_I wonder if the others found somewhere to hide; no one's called me on my cell yet, so they must not have run into any trouble. _

"Ok first I'm going to trim your ends and then I'm going to layer your hair." Maya said as she walked towards me holding a pair of scissors and a towel. She put the towel on the floor and walked behind me and started brushing through my hair.

"Oh god when was the last time you brushed your hair?" She asked, pulling roughly at the tangles.

_A month ago_

I shrugged and she kept brushing it.

"Ok, let me start telling you the basics of being me."  
"Ok shoot."

"Ok, first of all, I brush my hair every day." I rolled my eyes. "I usually leave it down or French braid it, so that'll be fairly easy. You know how to French braid, right?" I nodded.

_Cassie taught me_

"Ok good. If you forget you can ask Ella, she's my sister, and she'll do your hair. She can also check your outfit every morning before school, so make sure you talk to her at breakfast. All my clothes are hanging up in the closet over there" She pointed to one of the doors on the wall "Just try to wear something that looks good, ok?"

_Ignoring that comment_

"Ok."

"Good." I heard her throw the brush back onto the bed; Maya started snipping at my hair, slowly chopping off the ends. I saw little snips of dirty-blonde hair fell onto the towel.

"Ok, now for the layers." She muttered to herself. I tried to sit as still as possible, trying to imagine how I was going to be able to pull this off.

"Annnnd done!" She stopped cutting and stepped back to admire her work. I hopped off the stool and walked over to the mirror.

_Oh wow; my hair actually looks good for once._

Maya cut my hair surprisingly good; the ends were no longer split and uneven, and the layers actually looked pretty against my face.

"It looks great; I love it." I said, smiling; Maya smiled too.

Thanks; now, it's time to show you all of my friends." I sighed as she pulled me onto her bed and pulled out a black, studded iphone.

"Ok, I have pictures of all my friends on my phone, so you can always look back at the pictures if you get confused." She pulled up a picture of her and some guy, both hugging each other and smiling. The guy had dark, shaggy hair and olive skin. They were both in swimsuits, Maya's showing off her flat stomach while the guy's showed off an impressive 6–pack.

"This is Fang, he's my boyfriend; he's really nice, so don't let him intimidate you." I rolled my eyes.

_Pff like this guy could intimidate me; I could beat him to the ground any day_

She pulled up another picture, this one showing her and four other people, all in swimsuits and posing in front of a pool.

"This is all of my friends; we took this at Nudge's house last Friday. The guy on the far right, that's Iggy."

"Iggy" had strawberry blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, and looked like he was holding back a laugh. _Probably a jokester_.

"The girl next to him, that's Ella; she loves shopping we sometimes go to the mall together. She and Iggy are dating." I smiled to myself; they looked really good together. Ella had long, dark hair and a tan complexion. She was smiling sweetly as Iggy put his arm around her shoulder, goofily holding her next to him.

"The girl next to Ella, that's Nudge; she and Ella go to the mall a lot. Fair warning, Nudge talks. A LOT. Don't get her started on ANYTHING; she'll talk your ear off. We go to her house and swim every Friday night and sometimes have a sleepover."

_EVERY Friday night?!_

"That's me next to Ella, and that's Fang next to me. Simple enough?"

_Uhhhh_

"Whenever we go to Nudge's we swim until about 8, order pizza, swim again until 11 or so, and then watch movies. I HATE horror movies, so we usually watch movies like The Notebook and stuff. Or we'll just watch a good series on Netflix; just nothing really gory." She smiled sweetly and felt the urge to hurl.

_How can someone hate horror movies?! If I have to watch The Notebook, I'm going to kill someone_

"Wait, so you guys watch girl movies when the guys stay over?" She looked at me weird.

"Yea; why?" I shook my head.

"It's just I can't believe they'd watch those kinds of movies."

"Well they don't, but Nudge Ella and I outnumber them, so they have to."

_Those poor guys_

"Oh; ok." She nodded and then walked across the room to a black book bag that I hadn't noticed before.

"Ok, my school schedule is:

**Science 1****st**** period in room 253**

**Algebra 2****nd**** period in room 125**

**History 3****rd**** Period in room 150**

**Lunch 4****th**** Period**

**French (only on Thursdays, free period every other day) 5****th**** Period in room 231**

**English 6****th**** Period in room 214**

I have 1st period with Iggy, 2nd period with Ella, lunch with everyone, 5th period with Fang, and none of my friends are in 3rd or 6th period with me. Watch out for Iggy in science; he tends to make stuff in the lab that usually blows up. Don't encourage him. For lunch I usually only eat a salad and vitamin water, and we sit outside under this big oak tree in the court yard."

_Salad? And VITAMIN water? Who the hell drinks this stuff?! _

"Um, ok." She handed me the black phone.

"Here, take this; people with think it's weird if I don't have it with me." I took it and laid it on the bed next to me

"Ok, well, I'm off! I'll be back in about a week, so expect me back then!" He stood up and threw he bag over her shoulder.

"Wait, what?! You're leaving now?!"

"Uh, yea! Bye! Good luck! I'll call you when I get somewhere!" and she just hopped out of the window and ran across her yard! I ran over and looked out, watching her retreating form.

_Someone sure wanted to get out of here fast; Ohmigod I can't believe she just left me here like that!_

I shakily closed the window and backed into the room.

_I can't believe this is happening; this is going to be my life for a week._

I looked around the room.

_Do I WANT this to be my life for a little while? _I sighed. _If it keeps me hidden it'll have to be_

I picked up my bag, which had been lying on the floor until now, and started to search through it. The only thing I had brought that wasn't clothes was a little photo strip.

It was the kind of strip that you get at photo booths at the mall. We were bored one day, so Mason, Zach, Cassie and I decided to get one done.

_The first photo is of Cassie and Mason; Mason's head is turned towards Cassie, kissing her cheek. Cassie's mouth is shaped in an O of surprise, her hand to her cheek like she wasn't expecting it._

_In the second one Zach tried to do the same thing to me, but at the last second I put my hand up, so in the picture Zach's kissing the palm of hand while I'm laughing at the camera._

_The third one is of all of us sitting together, wearing some cheap 3D sunglasses. We've all got our hands around our chins, making it look like we're thinking about something, even though you can tell we're holding back laughs._

_The last one is the only serious one. Mason and Cassie sat next to each other, Mason's arm around Cassie's shoulders while they both smile. Me and Zach are doing the same thing, with his arm around my shoulders and smiling._

I smiled at the memory; that was one of the few times we weren't either planning a new job or recovering from an old one.

_I miss them so much_

"Maya! Dinner!" Someone yelled from downstairs. My head whipped around and my heart thudded in my chest.

"Ok!" My voice came out kinda cracked; I hope they don't notice. I started walking to the door, but then stopped short when I saw my reflection in the mirror. I was still wearing the T-shirt and shorts I had arrived in.

_Oh god oh god; what would Maya wear?_

I ran to the door that she said had been her closet and opened it.

_Oh. My. God._

_It's a walk in closet. She has a walk. In. Closet._

My eyes darted through the room, looking for something to wear. My gaze finally landed on some clothes that were laying a small bin in the corner of the closet.

_Maybe she wore this today_

I quickly stripped off my shirt, wincing as it passed over my stomach; my cuts still weren't healed. In fact they still had Zach's T-shirt wrapped around it.

_Yea, that's probably not good_

I pulled the other shirt, which turned out to be another Abecrombie shirt, over my head and then pulled on the denim shorts.

_Well, here goes nothing._

I ran out of the closet and down the stairs to what I think was the kitchen.

"Ella can you call Maya again?"

"Don't worry I'm here." I said with a smile as I walked in. Ella and someone I think was their mom were sitting at a bar in the kitchen with plates of tacos in front of them. Ella's eye traveled the length of my body and then gave me a weird look.

_Please think I'm Maya Please think I'm Maya_

"Didn't you wear that yesterday?" She asked, scrunching her nose up a little.

"Um, yea, but the shirt's really comfortable, and I thought why not?" I said quickly.

"Um, ok." I sighed in relief and sat down at the only empty seat on the bar.

"Ok, everybody dig in!" Ella started eating her taco really fast while I looked down at mine.

It had all the toppings I liked, but there was only one. I mean I eat like 5 of these at a time.

_Looks like tonight's midnight-snack night._

"Is something wrong?" I looked up and faced Maya's, I mean, my mom.

"Uh nothing's wrong; I was just about to eat." I reassured her; she smiled at me and then turned back to her plate.

When no one was looking I started shoving the taco in my mouth, basically stuffing my face. I finished in 5 seconds flat, licking my fingers. Thankfully no one saw me, so I was still in the clear.

I took a sip of the vitamin water that was at the edge of my plate and shuddered.

_Oh god this stuff is worse than I thought_

"I think I'm going to go back upstairs; I've got a small headache." I quickly lied. Ella kept eating, but (my mom?) looked up with worry in her face.

"Are you ok? Do you want an Advil?" I shook my head.

"No, I'm fine; I'm just going to go lay down." I walked back through the kitchen, up the stairs and into Maya's room. Or my room, I guess.

I put my photo strip on a little table beside the bed and then grabbed her phone, which thankfully wasn't password locked.

I clicked on her photos and started looking through them. They were mainly photos of Maya and her friends, a bunch of selfies here and there, and a couple of her, Ella and her mom. There were one or two videos too, so I clicked on them.

The first one was of what looked like them surprising Nudge at a birthday party, which only lasted about 10 seconds, those seconds being filled with screaming and laughter.

The next one looked like it was at a sleepover, showing all of her friends sitting on a couch and chairs. I'm guessing Maya filmed.

_"Ok, I'm filing this for future reference, seeing as how we have this conversation at EVERY sleepover." Maya's voice rang through the speaker, sounding annoyingly cocky._

_"All in favor of a Nicholas Sparks kind of movie?" The camera showed Nudge, Ella, and Maya (whose hand came in front of the camera) raising their hands._

_"All in favor of a horror movie?" The camera showed Iggy and Fang, who raised their hands but looked like they already knew the outcome. _

_"And the Nicholas Sparks movies have it!" She pointed the camera towards herself as the guys groaned in the background._

_"Thank you for watching."_

The screen turned black and then came back to her photo gallery.

_Well that was interesting_

I locked the phone and put it on the bedside table. The digital clock next to it read 10:00. Have I been looking at pictures that long?

_Whatever; looks like I'll have to go to sleep if I want to be normal at school tomorrow_

School

_I think the last time I was at school was the beginning of freshman year; that's when I met Zach, Cassie and Mason. We all just kinda dropped out after a few days, so I'm probably gonna end up being WAY behind everyone else. _

_Yay me_

I walked over to my bag of clothes and pulled out another T-shirt and some basketball shorts. I took off Maya's clothes and put on my own, instantly happy to be in something comfortable and not skin-tight.

_Maya, why must you wear such tight clothes?_

I flopped down on the bed and grabbed the remote, turning on Family Guy (my favorite show). I turned off the lamp and got under the covers, half-awake and half-asleep.

_Haha Stewie's murdering someone again_

_…_

_I need to stop thinking such violent stuff; maybe I can start working on that_

I chuckled to myself and buried my head in my pillow.

**Again, this was a filler chapter, so the rest of the chapters will be better. Please review!**


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